Just like old times

There are so many more important things I could be doing right now, but I'm going to take a moment to go back to the 4th-grade version of myself and indulge in an old whim. You see, as a precocious youngster I faithfully read the sports section of my local newspaper, the Daily Herald, every day. Sometimes I would become so excited after another thrilling Michael Jordan performance or so distraught after some loss--that was surely due to poor officiating--that I would write a sports column and send it into the paper. Sometimes they were re-tellings of pivotal points in games, other times they were well-thought-out pleas for why guys like Ron Harper and Scottie Pippen deserved more credit. None of my articles were ever published, but who could blame them for not realizing they had a 10-year-old Mitch Albom on their hands?

Anyways, I gave up the entirety of my afternoon to watching game 4 of the 1st round series between the Bulls and Celtics. By the end I was rooting for the Bulls more because I didn't want this series to end than because of my borderline-obsessive love of the team. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, the Celtics were leading the best-of-seven series 2 games to 1. The Bulls pulled out a thriller in Boston in game 1, then lost an equally compelling down-to-the wire match in game 2. Game 3 brought the series back to Chicago, but the Bulls laid an egg and were never in contention. Thus the pivotal game 4 that would determine the direction of the rest of the series. A Celtics win would virtually lock it up for them; a Bulls win would mean that it was all even.

The first two games were enough evidence to realize that this series is something special. The Celtics are the defending champs, but they're playing without the guy who is really the identity of the team. The Bulls are a somewhat discombobulated group that has a lethal amount of great scorers that are just now learning how to play together. The Celtics are led by veterans who have seen everything. The Bulls are lead by a rookie phenom and a coach who before this season had never coached at any level in his life. The result has been nothing short of phenomenal. Watching the Celtics refuse to cave despite their injuries and despite having played 180+ games the past two seasons is inspiring. Watching the Bulls come together before our eyes and fight through the growing pains of not having been here before is special because this only happens once in the evolution of a team.

But the best part is watching the two point guards duke it out like heavyweight champions. The Celtics' Rajon Rondo and the Bulls' Derrick Rose are so fast that no one can stay in front of them. They're strong and tough and in total control of their teams, despite being the youngest players. Rose tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most points ever for a rookie in his first playoff game, and Rondo has notched a triple double (one of the most difficult things to do in basketball) in THREE out of the four games.

Which made today's game so special. The Bulls were hanging on for dear life and somehow managed to have the lead at the end of the game. The Celtics missed a shot that would have tied it, and one of the young Bulls players made the mistake of not passing the ball to a better free throw shooter before getting fouled. He naturally missed one of the two free throws, which allowed the Celtics to tie it up on a wide open three pointer from Ray Allen, one of the deadliest shooters in the history of the league. (He was open because Derrick Rose completely blew his assignment defensively.) Youthful mistakes seemed to have cost the Bulls a game that they really didn't deserve to win in the first place, as they came out flat in the ensuing overtime and were quickly down by five.

Or so it seemed. A bizarre turn of events let the Bulls back in the game, and they now found themselves down by three with 10 seconds left. Enter Ben Gordon, the bite-sized dynamo who promptly hit a fade-away three pointer over the outstretched arm of a taller defender to send it into a second overtime. The Bulls almost blew another golden opportunity here, but John Salmons blocked a last second three point attempt that would have tied the game once again. The buzzer sounded, and the Bulls had prevailed.

Just like in the first two games, no team could seem to manage a lead larger than four or five points. The game kept going back and forth so every possession felt like the balance of the game rested on its shoulders. Both teams have dynamic scorers that do impossible things on a regular basis, which makes the actual viewing of the game that much more enthralling. And both teams never give up. Ever. They put their hearts out on the floor and give everything they can. The game wasn't perfect. Mistakes were made on both sides. But if you like basketball, it's impossible not to love watching two teams that match up so perfectly with each other. It makes it more special for me that my beloved Bulls are one of those teams. Here's to at least two more games in a series that I don't want to end any time soon. For a few hours today I was in fourth grade again, and that feeling is why we watch the games in the first place.